15 weeks and powering on

Hi All,

The last week has seen no extra issues to contend with. Bryan had another ultrasound on Thursday to examine the clot in his right calf, and some good news when they said it had reduced in size. Hopefully next time it will be completely gone. The pressure marks on Dad’s feet are also very slowly healing. It has taught us a valuable lesson about skin care and how diligent we will all have to be when checking pressure areas.

Our second trip to Southbank was a little less stressful this time round. Both train rides ran smoothly and the power chair was fully charged. Nan and Pop came along and we met up with Carmel and Grant, Mark and Kate for a lovely lunch at the Plough Inn. Dad even got to watch some Moto-GP racing!!

This week Bryan had a visit from Ellen, Stacey and Troy Morgan (from Vision Health and Fitness). Troy, being a personal trainer, gave Dad some professional advice in the Physio gym. They worked on Dad’s weight lifting technique, to strengthen his shoulders and arms.

Dad continues to have visits from friends and family, which he tells me, keeps him sane.

Tuesday being the Melbourne Cup, the Spinal Unit has organised wheelchair racing. Bryan, and his competitive nature will be champing at the bit, lined up on the start line. Mum is going to the function that USQ is holding in their refectory.

Mum and Dad are going to come down and visit me at the coast in 2 weekends time for my birthday. This will be Dad’s first overnight stay outside the hospital. But before this can happen we must first tick off a checklist of “things to take/ do”. For example we will need a portable hoist, shower chair, mattress, slide board, etc. There won’t be any room left in my apartment!

Uncle Derek and his friend Russel came to visit yesterday and motivated Dad to put out a hard session the gym.

Dad, Mum and I ventured down the road to Stone’s corner for some lunch today. It is about 1km away so Dad was in his power chair.

This week Bryan will be working on transferring into a car. This is the next step to being a little more independent. On the 17th of November the staff in the spinal unit will be having another meeting with us to discuss a possible discharge date.

Bye for now, keep you posted

Love always Rebecca and Family xo

22nd Wedding Anniversay

Hi All,


Saturday didn't turn out as we had initially planned. It all started when I arrived at the hospital around 9.30am and was walking down the hall to Bryan's room following a couple of nurses who were discussing the pressure sores on someones feet. I was saying to myself please don't let that be Bryan, but the closer I got to his room and they walked straight over to his bed my heart just sank when I saw him. Pressure sores are something you try to avoid at all costs as they can take months to heal. We are hoping that the sores were picked up early enough that they will heal quickly. This means keeping his feet up as much as possible and the pressure off the bottom of his feet. The second thing that happened was his electric chair hadn't been plug in over night and was flat, so it took a few of hours to charge. After much deliberating with the doctor and nursing staff, and Mick for the slight chair adjustment we were sorted enough to head out for a couple of hours.



The train ride to Southbank was smooth and hassle free, but the trip home was a bit of a different story. Once we got to Southbank we had a nice couple of hours just wheeling around (a very wheelchair friendly spot) having lunch, looking at the markets, Bryan even had a neck massage. The trip home on the train was going fine until we had to get off as having another wheelchair in the carriage required Bryan to reverse out rather then been able to turn around and drive out forwards (Bryan commented the chair should be accessorised with mirrors) . This was quite a challenge as it was a tight fit to manoeuvre onto the narrow ramp in reverse and with limited flexibility Bryan had to rely on myself and the train guard to assure he was lined up with the ramp. Before Bryan could get off the train the driver had to go forward a couple of meters as ramp lined up with a post.

This week has also seen Bryan with a clot forming in his right calf which again is not good news and needs to be watched closely but the doctor is hoping it will dissipate over time, an ultrasound next week will let us know what it is doing. Bryan's blood pressure has been very low this week and seems to be slowing his progress and he is keen to find a solution to this problem.

Today went well as blood pressure maintained, we think by the use of pressure stockings with holes cut out around the pressure sores (thanks to Rebecca's fine scissor work).



Some ex patients came in today to talk about their experiences since leaving the spinal unit which Bryan and I thought to be very beneficial. After lunch it was off to the gym to do some more lifting and transferring from chair to bench with alot of progress being made since I last saw him trying this.


Bryan was very excited at the news that Troy Carroll has managed to secure 4 tickets for us to attend the last round of Super X in Brisbane on the 5th December.

We are looking at taking another train trip to Southbank again on Sunday with the family.

Keep you posted.

Julie

Thursday 15th October

Hi All,

Just letting everyone know that as Saturday is our 22nd wedding anniversary we are having a day out. We plan to take the train to South Bank and have lunch and depending on how things our going we may even go and see a movie. Bryan is looking forward to his first train ride in the power chair. We went down to the train station today to check out where to wait for the train and it looks like it should be a straight forward exercise, we hope.

I'll let you know how everything goes.

Julie.

Mango smoothies and motorbikes on Monday

Hi followers of the Bryan Flyan Flemming blog site,

It is Rebecca here blogging for this week. Dad has been having a lot of adventures in his power chair over the last week. He is excited now that he can get out and explore the outskirts of the hospital.

Uncle Jeff made a surprise trip over from China this weekend for Pop's birthday, which is today. Dad didn't know he was coming over, so was a little shocked to see his brother standing outside the dining hall after lunch on Friday. Dad and Uncle Jeff went down to the Norman for a feed, Dad leading the way in the vroom vroom chair.

Mum and I spent the weekend down in Surfers Paradise for our annual girls weekend away with the touch footy girls. We returned to Brisbane on Sunday for Pop's birthday lunch with Dad, Nan, Unlce Jeff, Aunty Chris and Aunty Ros. Then we watched the end of bathurst in the spinal ward lounge room with big screen TV. Dad's cousin Ray also came to visit on Sunday afternoon.

It was my day with Dad yesterday as usual and we had a really good day. I arrived at the hospital very early and he hadn't even had a shower yet! Once Bryan was up we sat on the balcony in the sun to warm up a little as it was very cold here yesterday morning. Dad now has a moblie phone holder that he can hook to his hand and lift up to his ear to use his phone. He has his mobile phone on him and can answer it and even send a text message!

I bought some soy milk for Dad to make a smoothie in OT. He was given 2 mangoes and we decided that we should use them in a smoothie. Mark and Stacey turned up just in time to join in the fun!

Dad cut up the mangoes, poured in the milk, got the milo tin open and spooned it in, opened the honey jar and poured some in. He then took the blender over to the other bench, put in on its base and blended in up.

He then poured himself, Emily, Mark, Stacey and I a glass of Mango Milo smoothie each. A very weird combo of flavours but it tasted alright. We decided next time we will need some ice cream!

Mark, Stacey, Dad and I then went across the road to a little cafe for a yummy lunch and some fresh air.

Physio time at 2pm and Dad was keen to push himself hard. He did some long and short sitting, ranging and then practised rolling over, propping and sliding his bum across the bed. As I watch Dad struggling to move himself across the bed I find myself trying to do the movements for him. It doesn't help much so I give him as much verbal encouragment as I can. He is builing up his arms very fast and he finds they really burn after a day in the chair and the gym. At the end of todays session Dad's physio helped him do an assisted transfer from the bed into his chair. It is hopeful that when Bryan builds up enough strength he will be able to do this himself!

During physio Dad's friend Geoff Udy arrived on his yellow Can-Am Spyder Roadster. Dad and Geoff spent a while checking out this awesome piece of transport. Then moved to Starbucks for coffee and cake.

It was then time to say goodbye for another week. Back to uni for me and back to recovery for Dad.

Until next time!

Love Becca and family xx

Vroom Vroom

Hello wonderful friends and family,

Rebecca here! Updating the blog with a couple of days worth of news...

Mum, Erin and I spent a night in the Sofitel in Brisbane city on Friday night - it was a voucher kindly given to us by the USQ - for some relaxation and girly time. We had a wonderful night!

Saturday afternoon we all went to Uncle Mark and Aunty Sue's place for a BBQ. When I got there Dad was already having a go at Mark's Nintendo Wii, playing tennis! He loved it and when he got the hang of holding onto the remote gave us a real run for our money. (Off track a little but Dad is involved in a research program run by UQ students studying the advantages of interactive games, such as the Wii, in the recovery of spinal injury patients). I can see that little things like this game do really help, as a fun way of ranging and exercising his arms. Earlier on Saturday before Dad got in the taxi the nursing staff emptied his catheter bag, which wasn't very full and asked him if he wanted to take any more "overflow bags" just in case but he didn't think he would need it. Later on Dad managed to produce 3 whole bags of urine...which because we didn't take any bags...had to water Mark's lawn. While it was being emptied Dad let out a sigh of relief "ahhh"...even though he can't really feel it.

Sunday Nan and Pop came to visit in the morning and Mum and Erin headed back to Toowoomba in the afternoon. Kath and Pat joined Dad, Joey and I to watch the footy Grand Final. We ordered pizza and took over the lounge room in the spinal ward..which has the only big screen TV. Very enjoyable evening...Go the Storm!!

I spent Monday with Dad and took a few photos of the eventful day.

Dad got a new trial chair! It is electric this time. After only being in it for half an hour Dad says "I feel guilty when I see other people in push chairs...I'm being lazy". But it gave him so much freedom and a well deserved break for his arms. I could not stop him once he got going...I had to jog to keep up with him. It is the first motorised vehicle he has driven since the accident and he is starting to appear as Flyan Bryan once again!!

Now that he had proper wheels he wasn't going to let the walls of the spinal unit keep him in he wanted to get out and about. So I walked/ran and he motored on down to the shopping centre to buy Mum a birthday present.

Some beautiful flowers!!

Mum's birthday was yesterday and she went back up to Brisbane to spend the day with Dad. They went to the Norm for dinner last night.

I will get Mum to upload some more pics of us playing the Wii at Uncle Mark's during the week.

Love to you all

Rebecca and family xoxo